Lessons Learned from our Test Run Camping Trip: Ask Questions when Booking

The first thing we learned when we arrived at our campsite is that we should have asked more questions when we booked the site. Many parks have online reservations systems that may be easy to use, but others don't. Ohio state park campgrounds can be booked online, but I found it easier to call, since I had a short list of potential parks and wanted helf finding the best available park and campsite.

The Ohio State Parks are booked centrally, which is true of a lot of state park systems, so when I called to book, I wasn't actually talking to someone located at the park I was going to. I doubt the person on the phone had ever been to Hocking Hills before. I was so excited that they even had a site available for the dates I wanted that I snapped it up.

I did ask what she meant by a "primitive" site, but all I got was that there was no water at the site, the distance to the bathroom (which wasn't far at all), and the fact that we would have our own picnic table and firepit. This all sounded great to me. It never occurred to me that I couldn't drive up to the site, which turned out to be a .6 mile walk from our car.

This hike with our gear and tired kids who had just completed another hike was a serious challenge. We took the kids and one load back and then had 2 people go for a second load, and we were only able to bring the bare necessities back, deciding to leave most things in the car to be carried back as needed. And every time we left the campsite, we tried to pack out things we wouldn't need again. This included trash, which had to be packed out and thrown in the dumpster in the parking lot, but also food we wouldn't need again and the stove after we finished with it.